Michael Chertoff, makes money from full body scanners. So he isn't exactly unbiased.
Also, he is kind of a jack ass who really doesn't seem to care for the constitution.
Right on - more specifically, he's the head of the Chertoff Group, who is a security consulting agency. One of their clients manufactures these very same body scanning technologies. This information should be heavily disclosed by any article that reports on Chertoff's insistence that we use these body scanning technologies. It's not a coincidence that he's pushing this technology and, oh by the way, one of this clients directly profits from this.
As a consultant, that's fine - he's doing his job for the client (not necessarily the public), but this needs to be disclosed. The fact that he used to be a public servant will influence the public.
Well, they really weren't. A subpoena is a writ issued by a court, and the article heavily implies that this was simply a written request and that no judge had signed off on it. Why the deputy sheriff insisted on calling it a subpoena behooves me. Here's the quote I'm referring to:
But this is the Internet, and Blizzard is in California. Roberson’s subpoena was nothing more than a politely worded request, considering the limits of his law enforcement jurisdiction and the ambiguity of the online world.
So, it doesn't look like it was signed off by a judge - it was just a written request by the police. I'm not trying to split hairs or anything, but Blizzard wasn't exactly forced to comply.
Due to the guy being in a different country, there was not a need to respond to it, but I guess that there would have been nothing to have stopped one being sought in Canada....
Blizzard didn't have to respond because they are based in California and the police who were searching for Hightower are based in Howard County, Indiana and also because there was no real subpoena. Alfred Hightower skipped country and went to Canada and US Marshals could not locate him. So Sheriff deputy Matt Roberson sent a written request to Blizzard, who in turn sent them IP information to help track Hightower down. The Sheriff's department then notified the US Marshals, who asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to help deport him.
I don't have a problem with companies helping law enforcement track accused suspects down, I mean there was a warrant out on the guy, but I'd prefer if it were done the right way - with a judge signing off on a subpoena. The suspect was not exactly wanted for murder, but for dealing in a schedule III and IV substance.
Groan. And time for... yet another idiot confusing weather and climate.
You are so right... they have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with each other. In fact, I would bet that every snow storm means that the climate is actually getting much hotter... sort of an inverse relationship. Except for in the summer (of course)... that's just the beginning of a 50,000 year global heat wave caused by cars and incandescent light bulbs.
Every stinkin' year, it gets cold and snows in Russia... will global warming ever end?
Local weather conditions have absolutely nothing to do with global climate trends. Global mean temperatures can go up, but locally, you may be experiencing the coldest day of your life. Snow storms in colder, local regions of the globe are not mutually exclusive to warmer global temperatures.
This is a good point. The promise of 72 Virgins is probably much more enticing to geek engineers.
It doesn't specify the sex of those 72 virgins in the religious text. Just saying -- unless you're bisexual you might be disappointed.
I think the expression on their face would be hilarious if those 72 virgins were NOT what they expected.
Having said that, the whole 72 virgins thing was quoted by Imam at-Tirmidhi, and they were called houri, which were described as companions of equal age.
And you're right - I don't believe the Qur'an ever assigned a gender to the Houri, but my guess is that a bunch of fundamentalists perverted the translations to make it more enticing to become a martyr for their cause - similar to the promises that the Pope made during the Crusades regarding those that died in battle.
Suddenly, everyone wanted a piece of the action when eternal paradise was offered.:P
Re:Brains behind plane bomber was released from Gi
on
GSM Decryption Published
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Nothing is stopping you from submitting the story. Something to think about - what category would it fall under?
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Is there any reason to think they are NOT developing WMD?
No, they've been plenty evasive about their research and deserve the scrutiny, but for people like me, it's also a matter of sovereignty and nationalistic pride. Does anyone ever question the U.S. when they develop high-tech weapons systems that later gets used to kill people on the battlefield? Nope. And if they do, they tell the world to fuck off, and rightfully so.
Part of me really wishes that the Iranians would just quit screwing around and focusing solely on nuclear research for energy purposes only. Like I mentioned in a previous post, their population has doubled and they cannot afford to rely on petroleum.
Last I checked they've claimed to launch a satellite twice. I don't recall much of an "uproar" with regard to that.
And that's what baffles me the most. Everyone is under the impression that the Iranians are living in the stone age, but when they try to do something in the field of science, they get branded as terrorists with nefarious motives.
When the Ayatollahs claim, however, to "wipe Israel of the map" there was lots of whining from Israel, some from the US.
Ahmadinejad never said anything about wiping Israel off the map. It was a misquote, and some speculate that it was done on purpose to muddy the waters. Also, the President of Iran has no authority to wage war or mobilize troops. Only the Supreme Ayatollah can do that, and he knows he'll be in a world of trouble if he ever directly threatened Israel.
I won't begin to try to defend the President of Iran, I mean, take a look at the link that I posted above. He's said and done plenty of things to be critical of, but it's very dishonest to misquote someone. Those kinds of things can start wars, heh.
But then again take it with the caveat that I'm an Israeli.
Let me take the opportunity to wish you and your people peace and safety, and hope that no more wars break out between the Israelis and their surrounding neighbors. That's all I can ever hope for.
Ugh, don't remind me.:\ It really does make you go WTF!
They have so much oil, what do they need nuclear tech for?
Iran's nuclear history started in the 1970s with the help of the US, back when Iran was an ally. The Shah was very forward-thinking and understood that oil wouldn't last forever. I believe the current estimate is that Iran has enough oil for maybe 75 years. This sounds like a long time, but only if everything remains constant.
Iran's population has doubled in the last twenty years, meaning their demand for power is far outweighing their supply. Even if they were to completely refine all of their own oil, they're going to simply pollute their own environment and burn through their oil supply much faster.
No single nation should put all of their eggs in one basket and nobody should be dependent on another country for their sole source of power. I hear the argument for the US to build more nuclear reactors all the time because it's cheaper and cleaner than burning fossil fuels. Why not Iran?
I will be very surprised if Iran doesn't go for the A-Bomb.
This is a legitimate concern - I can't argue that. The alternative is for outside nations to supply Iran with the enriched uranium and disposing of the spent fuel rods, but we go back to my previous comment about not depending on any nation for their sole source of power.
The government of Iran only has themselves to blame and unfortunately, the people there will suffer because of it.
How much progress could be made if these religious fanatics (including Islamic states like Iran) could focus their energy on science rather than their own petty prejudices?
Well, when countries like Iran attempt to make their own advances in science, they get accused of wanting to develop WMDs and get threatened with military action by Israel. Could you imagine the uproar if Tehran tried to get into space exploration?
A good article on why the nuclear issue in Iran is also medical, and not just energy / weapons research.
I do agree with your point overall though. As someone who has visited Iran, their situation would be much nicer if the government spent their funds on their own people rather than propping up Hezbollah over in Lebanon. Their water treatment plants are antiquated, they have virtually no space program, and most of their technologies are hand-me-downs from US tech from the 70s or Russian-made.
Theocracies just do not work and will do anything possible to continue their survival, even if it means sacrificing their own citizens.
That always struck me as a little improbable. You mean you're just going to eat that thing right after you pressed it against a disgusting fingerprint scanner?
Please don't go and give them any ideas! They probably haven't thought of that yet.
Police: "We're arresting you for trespassing." Citizen: "But I haven't done anything! I've been home all day." Police: "Your DNA was in our database and it does not belong there." Citizen: "Didn't YOU put my DNA in there to begin with?" Police: "SILENCE. Oh look, we already have your DNA. It's a perfect match..."
3,804 out of the 30,000 are into "Atmosphere, Earth, & Environment", and of those, 39 are into climatology. 39 out of 30,000 scientists are experts into climatology. That's about a.1%.
I'm certain that a holder of a PhD in physics or chemistry would be more qualified than me, a computer consultant, or Al Gore, a politician, but simply saying 30,000 scientists without mentioning their qualifications is disingenuous. It leads the readers out here to believe that those scientists are all 100% knowledgeable in climatology, which is simply not true.
Now, do we have any numbers regarding how many scientists agree with Al Gore?
The weather balloon data does not show warming at higher altitudes thus it is not Global Warming.
After examining the satellite data, collected since 1979 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellites, Carl Mears and Frank Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, Calif., found that the satellites had drifted in orbit, throwing off the timing of temperature measures. Essentially, the satellites were increasingly reporting nighttime temperatures as daytime ones, leading to a false cooling trend. The team also found a math error in the calculations.
This data doesn't prove that it's man-made, but it certainly takes away the argument that warming isn't happening. It could be cyclical. It could be, as you say, the sun.
Ah, the "our actions were no worse than their actions" argument. So what does that make us, and how does it justify it? I would say that it wasn't any better either. I don't see how one country's atrocity justifies another country's atrocity. Moral relativism, at its finest.
We all agree that the Japanese did probably some of the most horrific shit any country could during WWII, but your argument implies that it was perfectly fine to nuke their civilians as well, most of whom had nothing to do with the atrocities in Nanking.
By the way, if you read the wikipedia article you linked to, it says that the Japanese asked the Chinese to surrender before the massacre, which they refused to do. That sounds similar to your "not like we did not warn them" argument.
And it's wrong. It was wrong for the soldiers in Nanking to commit rape and murder on civilians (or anyone, for that matter), even though they warned them in advance. The prior warning shouldn't give a green light to do whatever you want to do.
If there's a big sign above a button that says "warning: pressing this button will result in your death" - is anyone to blame but you for pushing that button?
I don't see how those civilians were the ones that pushed the button, in this case. Why was the nuke not used on a legitimate military target? Or was the military too blended in with the civilians?
In the UK if you said "liar, liar, pants on fire" to an RIAA like organisation they could sue you for libel unless you could prove that every single employee had burning pants.
Nothing that couldn't be accomplished with enough kerosene, matches, or spontaneous combustion.
One day, someone is going to get killed because of a leak on Wikileaks.
I hope that if it ever happens they find a way to hold Wikileaks and the leaker accountable.
What about when many people die because the whistleblower bit their tongue and decided not to leak the information? Should we also hold that person accountable? This is starting to sound like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for someone privy to secrets.
They usually get caught only when they don't know their boundaries and try to go for TOO much.
Either that, or they get elected to office, and plunder the public directly. But hey, we keep electing these crooks, so we kind of deserve it.
Hey look, FREE HEALTH CARE!
My take on it: This downward spiral will continue only as long was we continue to swap R's with D's and vice versa. It gives all of them tacit approval that business as usual is fine, when it is really not.
When America finally grows a pair and elects competent, efficient 3rd Party candidates into office, it will send a message to both R's and D's that this constant dicking around isn't going to be tolerated. By giving both sides a real time-out, they will realize that we're serious about change.
I think the poster that you're replying to was implying that the six year sentence is hardly a deterrent for the amount that the criminal was convicted for stealing. If stealing 6.5 million pounds gets you six years in the slammer, and the alternative is working 20 years for only 2.5 million pounds, then suddenly the risk of getting caught doesn't seem so bad.
(Well, I wouldn't want to even spend one minute in prison, let alone six years, but that's just me:-D )
I think their whole point was that six years is way too small of a sentence for someone who stole that much money, not that he got to keep it after he was released. Keep in mind, there are cyber-criminals that are still at large, so there are some that get away with it. They usually get caught only when they don't know their boundaries and try to go for TOO much.
Slashdot Mirror
"But your honor - those TSA goons planted that weapon / explosives on me! There was no evidence that it was on me before I was searched!"
(Yes, I know the article is about Slovakia police planting the explosives, not TSA, but it's not as far-fetched as it now seems, right?)
Michael Chertoff, makes money from full body scanners. So he isn't exactly unbiased.
Also, he is kind of a jack ass who really doesn't seem to care for the constitution.
Right on - more specifically, he's the head of the Chertoff Group, who is a security consulting agency. One of their clients manufactures these very same body scanning technologies. This information should be heavily disclosed by any article that reports on Chertoff's insistence that we use these body scanning technologies. It's not a coincidence that he's pushing this technology and, oh by the way, one of this clients directly profits from this.
As a consultant, that's fine - he's doing his job for the client (not necessarily the public), but this needs to be disclosed. The fact that he used to be a public servant will influence the public.
Good call.
Blizzard was subpoenaed:
Well, they really weren't. A subpoena is a writ issued by a court, and the article heavily implies that this was simply a written request and that no judge had signed off on it. Why the deputy sheriff insisted on calling it a subpoena behooves me. Here's the quote I'm referring to:
But this is the Internet, and Blizzard is in California. Roberson’s subpoena was nothing more than a politely worded request, considering the limits of his law enforcement jurisdiction and the ambiguity of the online world.
So, it doesn't look like it was signed off by a judge - it was just a written request by the police. I'm not trying to split hairs or anything, but Blizzard wasn't exactly forced to comply.
Due to the guy being in a different country, there was not a need to respond to it, but I guess that there would have been nothing to have stopped one being sought in Canada....
Blizzard didn't have to respond because they are based in California and the police who were searching for Hightower are based in Howard County, Indiana and also because there was no real subpoena. Alfred Hightower skipped country and went to Canada and US Marshals could not locate him. So Sheriff deputy Matt Roberson sent a written request to Blizzard, who in turn sent them IP information to help track Hightower down. The Sheriff's department then notified the US Marshals, who asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to help deport him.
I don't have a problem with companies helping law enforcement track accused suspects down, I mean there was a warrant out on the guy, but I'd prefer if it were done the right way - with a judge signing off on a subpoena. The suspect was not exactly wanted for murder, but for dealing in a schedule III and IV substance.
Groan. And time for... yet another idiot confusing weather and climate.
You are so right... they have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with each other. In fact, I would bet that every snow storm means that the climate is actually getting much hotter... sort of an inverse relationship. Except for in the summer (of course)... that's just the beginning of a 50,000 year global heat wave caused by cars and incandescent light bulbs.
Every stinkin' year, it gets cold and snows in Russia... will global warming ever end?
Local weather conditions have absolutely nothing to do with global climate trends. Global mean temperatures can go up, but locally, you may be experiencing the coldest day of your life. Snow storms in colder, local regions of the globe are not mutually exclusive to warmer global temperatures.
This is a good point. The promise of 72 Virgins is probably much more enticing to geek engineers.
It doesn't specify the sex of those 72 virgins in the religious text. Just saying -- unless you're bisexual you might be disappointed.
I think the expression on their face would be hilarious if those 72 virgins were NOT what they expected.
Having said that, the whole 72 virgins thing was quoted by Imam at-Tirmidhi, and they were called houri, which were described as companions of equal age.
And you're right - I don't believe the Qur'an ever assigned a gender to the Houri, but my guess is that a bunch of fundamentalists perverted the translations to make it more enticing to become a martyr for their cause - similar to the promises that the Pope made during the Crusades regarding those that died in battle.
Suddenly, everyone wanted a piece of the action when eternal paradise was offered. :P
Nothing is stopping you from submitting the story. Something to think about - what category would it fall under?
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Is there any reason to think they are NOT developing WMD?
No, they've been plenty evasive about their research and deserve the scrutiny, but for people like me, it's also a matter of sovereignty and nationalistic pride. Does anyone ever question the U.S. when they develop high-tech weapons systems that later gets used to kill people on the battlefield? Nope. And if they do, they tell the world to fuck off, and rightfully so.
Part of me really wishes that the Iranians would just quit screwing around and focusing solely on nuclear research for energy purposes only. Like I mentioned in a previous post, their population has doubled and they cannot afford to rely on petroleum.
Last I checked they've claimed to launch a satellite twice. I don't recall much of an "uproar" with regard to that.
I do.
And that's what baffles me the most. Everyone is under the impression that the Iranians are living in the stone age, but when they try to do something in the field of science, they get branded as terrorists with nefarious motives.
When the Ayatollahs claim, however, to "wipe Israel of the map" there was lots of whining from Israel, some from the US.
Ahmadinejad never said anything about wiping Israel off the map. It was a misquote, and some speculate that it was done on purpose to muddy the waters. Also, the President of Iran has no authority to wage war or mobilize troops. Only the Supreme Ayatollah can do that, and he knows he'll be in a world of trouble if he ever directly threatened Israel.
I won't begin to try to defend the President of Iran, I mean, take a look at the link that I posted above. He's said and done plenty of things to be critical of, but it's very dishonest to misquote someone. Those kinds of things can start wars, heh.
But then again take it with the caveat that I'm an Israeli.
Let me take the opportunity to wish you and your people peace and safety, and hope that no more wars break out between the Israelis and their surrounding neighbors. That's all I can ever hope for.
They also import Gas... makes you go WTF.
Ugh, don't remind me. :\ It really does make you go WTF!
They have so much oil, what do they need nuclear tech for?
Iran's nuclear history started in the 1970s with the help of the US, back when Iran was an ally. The Shah was very forward-thinking and understood that oil wouldn't last forever. I believe the current estimate is that Iran has enough oil for maybe 75 years. This sounds like a long time, but only if everything remains constant.
Iran's population has doubled in the last twenty years, meaning their demand for power is far outweighing their supply. Even if they were to completely refine all of their own oil, they're going to simply pollute their own environment and burn through their oil supply much faster.
No single nation should put all of their eggs in one basket and nobody should be dependent on another country for their sole source of power. I hear the argument for the US to build more nuclear reactors all the time because it's cheaper and cleaner than burning fossil fuels. Why not Iran?
I will be very surprised if Iran doesn't go for the A-Bomb.
This is a legitimate concern - I can't argue that. The alternative is for outside nations to supply Iran with the enriched uranium and disposing of the spent fuel rods, but we go back to my previous comment about not depending on any nation for their sole source of power.
The government of Iran only has themselves to blame and unfortunately, the people there will suffer because of it.
How much progress could be made if these religious fanatics (including Islamic states like Iran) could focus their energy on science rather than their own petty prejudices?
Well, when countries like Iran attempt to make their own advances in science, they get accused of wanting to develop WMDs and get threatened with military action by Israel. Could you imagine the uproar if Tehran tried to get into space exploration?
A good article on why the nuclear issue in Iran is also medical, and not just energy / weapons research.
I do agree with your point overall though. As someone who has visited Iran, their situation would be much nicer if the government spent their funds on their own people rather than propping up Hezbollah over in Lebanon. Their water treatment plants are antiquated, they have virtually no space program, and most of their technologies are hand-me-downs from US tech from the 70s or Russian-made.
Theocracies just do not work and will do anything possible to continue their survival, even if it means sacrificing their own citizens.
This copy-paste job posted by an anonymous coward. How telling. Let me guess, you don't have an account?
This needs to be modded up to +1000.
Seriously.
That always struck me as a little improbable. You mean you're just going to eat that thing right after you pressed it against a disgusting fingerprint scanner?
Some people live by the five-second rule!
Please don't go and give them any ideas! They probably haven't thought of that yet.
Police: "We're arresting you for trespassing."
Citizen: "But I haven't done anything! I've been home all day."
Police: "Your DNA was in our database and it does not belong there."
Citizen: "Didn't YOU put my DNA in there to begin with?"
Police: "SILENCE. Oh look, we already have your DNA. It's a perfect match..."
I say opinion because 30,000 scientists have said they feel that Gore
has lied and distorted the facts.
Out of those 30,000 scientists, how many have a background in climatology?
http://www.petitionproject.org/qualifications_of_signers.php
3,804 out of the 30,000 are into "Atmosphere, Earth, & Environment", and of those, 39 are into climatology. 39 out of 30,000 scientists are experts into climatology. That's about a .1%.
I'm certain that a holder of a PhD in physics or chemistry would be more qualified than me, a computer consultant, or Al Gore, a politician, but simply saying 30,000 scientists without mentioning their qualifications is disingenuous. It leads the readers out here to believe that those scientists are all 100% knowledgeable in climatology, which is simply not true.
Now, do we have any numbers regarding how many scientists agree with Al Gore?
The weather balloon data does not show warming at higher altitudes thus it is not Global Warming.
You mean this data?
After examining the satellite data, collected since 1979 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellites, Carl Mears and Frank Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, Calif., found that the satellites had drifted in orbit, throwing off the timing of temperature measures. Essentially, the satellites were increasingly reporting nighttime temperatures as daytime ones, leading to a false cooling trend. The team also found a math error in the calculations.
This data doesn't prove that it's man-made, but it certainly takes away the argument that warming isn't happening. It could be cyclical. It could be, as you say, the sun.
Bravo - that was actually a good first post. :-)
not like we did not warn them
and the bomb was no worse then Japans actions
Ah, the "our actions were no worse than their actions" argument. So what does that make us, and how does it justify it? I would say that it wasn't any better either. I don't see how one country's atrocity justifies another country's atrocity. Moral relativism, at its finest.
We all agree that the Japanese did probably some of the most horrific shit any country could during WWII, but your argument implies that it was perfectly fine to nuke their civilians as well, most of whom had nothing to do with the atrocities in Nanking.
By the way, if you read the wikipedia article you linked to, it says that the Japanese asked the Chinese to surrender before the massacre, which they refused to do. That sounds similar to your "not like we did not warn them" argument.
And it's wrong. It was wrong for the soldiers in Nanking to commit rape and murder on civilians (or anyone, for that matter), even though they warned them in advance. The prior warning shouldn't give a green light to do whatever you want to do.
If there's a big sign above a button that says "warning: pressing this button will result in your death" - is anyone to blame but you for pushing that button?
I don't see how those civilians were the ones that pushed the button, in this case. Why was the nuke not used on a legitimate military target? Or was the military too blended in with the civilians?
Naw, they'll be too busy raiding the cheese shop in Stormwind.
In the UK if you said "liar, liar, pants on fire" to an RIAA like organisation they could sue you for libel unless you could prove that every single employee had burning pants.
Nothing that couldn't be accomplished with enough kerosene, matches, or spontaneous combustion.
One day, someone is going to get killed because of a leak on Wikileaks.
I hope that if it ever happens they find a way to hold Wikileaks and the leaker accountable.
What about when many people die because the whistleblower bit their tongue and decided not to leak the information? Should we also hold that person accountable? This is starting to sound like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for someone privy to secrets.
The is no Robert Morgan that works at Microsoft. Not sure who this guy is but if he does work at MS its not his real name.
Well, not anymore, anyway. :-)
Either that, or they get elected to office, and plunder the public directly. But hey, we keep electing these crooks, so we kind of deserve it.
Hey look, FREE HEALTH CARE!
My take on it: This downward spiral will continue only as long was we continue to swap R's with D's and vice versa. It gives all of them tacit approval that business as usual is fine, when it is really not.
When America finally grows a pair and elects competent, efficient 3rd Party candidates into office, it will send a message to both R's and D's that this constant dicking around isn't going to be tolerated. By giving both sides a real time-out, they will realize that we're serious about change.
I think the poster that you're replying to was implying that the six year sentence is hardly a deterrent for the amount that the criminal was convicted for stealing. If stealing 6.5 million pounds gets you six years in the slammer, and the alternative is working 20 years for only 2.5 million pounds, then suddenly the risk of getting caught doesn't seem so bad.
(Well, I wouldn't want to even spend one minute in prison, let alone six years, but that's just me :-D )
I think their whole point was that six years is way too small of a sentence for someone who stole that much money, not that he got to keep it after he was released. Keep in mind, there are cyber-criminals that are still at large, so there are some that get away with it. They usually get caught only when they don't know their boundaries and try to go for TOO much.
For added humor, start yelling out BRAAAIIINNNNNS with a glazed over look in your eyes.
+1 for necrophiliacs who get the best of both worlds.